The End Of Things
by BukkakeNoJutsu
Summary: How will Naruto, the most surprising ninja in the village, finally manage to bring Sasuke back to Konoha? With a final confrontation that will be talked about for ages, of course. Watch as the pieces fall into place and fall apart. Naruto II spoilers


This is a sidestory to my Naru/Anko oneshot _Fuel for the End. _ Read that first if you will.

This is now an alternative universe Naruto fic, set in the time before Sasuke defeated Orochimaru.

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The End of Things

By: BukkakeNoJutsu

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, because if he did; he would've bagged Tsunade back when he was twelve.

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Time was running out for both Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.

It was only a matter of days before Orochimaru would make his move to claim Sasuke's body as his own.

Uzumaki Naruto had one day left until he would set out on a retrieval mission to bring his best friend back to Konoha.

His goal now was to create a plan to successfully capture Sasuke. It was unusual for him as figured he did his best thinking on the fly in the midst of a life or death battle.

Inwardly Naruto chuckled, thinking_, "There's a first time for everything."_

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A week and a half ago Tsunade dislocated his jaw with a right hook when he formally requested this mission to be a solo one. When she healed his injury, he grinned at her through a bloodied mouth and explained his reasoning.

"Obachan, me and Sasuke are both monsters capable of causing inhuman amounts of damage. I know teamwork is vital to Konoha's missions, but I can't truly cut loose while keeping an eye on my teammates. Sasuke has been training to be an assassination specialist and I am a heavy-combat specialist, a shinobi trained for war. Any full-on battle between us will be massive in scale. If anyone gets in the middle it'll be a goddamn massacre."

Tsunade was itching to interrupt before Naruto placed a finger on her lips to silence her and continued.

"Thanks to all the wind elemental training, I can cause more damage normally than I would in a four-tailed state. Also due to the giant rat, I am the only one capable of surviving Sasuke's attacks when hit full on…Not like I'd let him hit me this time, though."

When she could stand no longer, Tsunade shook him like a rag doll bellowing, "You goddamned idiot! He shoved a chidori through your chest last time. Next time can only be worse. Having a medic-nin like Sakura on your team increases the odds of your team's survival dramatically. It's _suicide_ to even attempt a solo S-ranked mission without any sort of backup!"

The genin shook his head.

"I know that my teammates are great ninjas, but I won't lose a member of Team Seven. You know how Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji lost Asuma to the Akatsuki. I won't sacrifice Kakashi or Sakura-chan like that! You know my current abilities right now. This is a path that I know have to take on my own and I will do so with or without your approval." said Naruto steely-eyed.

Naruto braced himself for a bone-shattering hit this time.

Instead, Tsunade drew him into a rib-creaking embrace, tears welling up her eyes. Gods, the blonde fool in front of her was such a jackass at times.

"Brat, the last thing I want to see is you sacrifice yourself for Sasuke. Don't make the same mistake that the Sandaime did with Orochimaru." said the Hokage, her voice threatening to break up into sobs.

"I won't."

Tsunade held him a few more moments before replying.

"Promise me two things: that you'll come back alive, and that you will assassinate Uchiha Sasuke if capturing him alive proves to be an obstacle to your continued health. In no uncertain terms, I want your word that you'll outright kill the youngest Uchiha if he puts up too much of a fight."

Naruto closed his eyes in thought as he considered her request. He flashed her a bright smile.

"I promise, Obachan, to come back to Konoha relatively healthy with Uchiha Sasuke at my side, dead or alive."

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As to be expected, Haruno Sakura was furious with this turn of events. Kakashi-sensei seemed to understand while all the pink-haired chuunin could feel was betrayal, disappointment, and worry. Her two teammates, past and present, would be marching off to their deaths and she could do nothing to stop them. She had been giving the blonde genin the silent treatment until Tsunade pulled her aside and explained her reasoning for allowing this mission.

The older blonde woman sighed.

"Sakura, this business with Asuma's death has Naruto spooked in a big way. He is unwilling to see any of his comrades lost for his sake. He's foolish and a pain, but Naruto has a point you know. The only way now to conceivably defeat Sasuke without major casualties is for him to cut loose: Kyuubi chakra, rasengans, kinjustsu and all, regardless of collateral damage."

"Who's going to help Naruto? He'll kill himself at this rate if Sasuke doesn't. I just can't let him die…"

Tears were running down the pink-haired girl's face now.

The Hokage gathered up her apprentice in an awkward hug, as she was unused to showing much physical affection to people in the village outside of her favorite genin. However awkward her gesture, it helped to calm down the Haruno girl.

"In the worst-case scenario, he 's the only one who can survive what the bastard can dish out, and he can cause more damage over a longer period of time. The only other nin in this village who could survive a direct hit from a chidori to center mass is myself. Even with my genesis rebith technique, I wouldn't put any money on it. You have got to believe in him."

Sakura nodded in hesitant agreement.

"And with his current training, he doesn't have to rely much on the Ninetails. He's becoming very powerful in his own right."

With that, Haruno Sakura received a lot of food for thought.

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After Naruto's meeting with Tsunade, the crafty Hokage forced him to train with the top jounin in the village to make damn sure the mission would be a success. He held to a strict training regimen while concurrently perfecting all sorts of techniques involving wind natured chakra and rasengans. Genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjutsu, as well as psychological techniques were drilled into him like Rock Lee's fists hitting a training post. He heeded Kakashi-sensei's advice well and used hideous amounts of kage bunshins to intensify his already barbaric training.

During one of Naruto's infrequent breaks spent at Ichiraku, Kiba jokingly asked Naruto if he was preparing for the next great shinobi war. The blonde in all seriousness answered, "Actually, I am. I've got Sasuke to capture and a lot of S-ranked ninja to kill." The genin's earnest reply left even Kiba speechless.

The occurrence of pushing himself past his limits became routine for Uzumaki Naruto in the past week and a half. His training continued to progress predictably well until yesterday.

That was when things went ass over teakettle.

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Yesterday, Naruto sparred with special jounin Mitarashi Anko. With sheer bullheadedness, the genin managed to earn her respect.

Strangely enough, after hours of vicious fighting, she treated him to dinner.

They both hit it off unexpectedly well, finding much in common besides their knockdown, drag-out temperaments. They were both loud and proud, but, as a result of being village pariahs, they were ultimately lonely.

Thanks in no small part to some vile poisons loosely disguised as liquor, inhibitions were tossed aside and Uzumaki Naruto found himself kissing Mitarashi Anko, the kunoichi who held a village-wide monopoly on sexy like he had on stamina. Like a page torn out of one of the classier sections of Jiraiya's novels, the kindred spirits found themselves spending the night together.

The morning held even further surprises.

Instead of waking up with his throat slit and kunai-strewn body tossed in a ditch, Naruto once again found himself exploring the upper reaches of Anko's flexibility and physical stamina.

Today was the start of some sort of relationship-thingy that Naruto could barely even comprehend. All he could think about was how his lips tingled from when Anko kissed him goodbye before leaving to report to the Godaime Hokage.

He instinctively knew that the status quo of his relatively straightforward existence of "defeat bad ninjas and become Hokage" had been shaken up faster than one of the 4th Hokage's Hiraishin no Jutsus. Uzumaki Naruto felt that the ramen bowl that was his life was being vigorously stirred with a pair of chopsticks to leave the once tranquil surface of broth a maelstrom of noodles and toppings.

He mentally cursed his poetic limitations, but truth be told, the blonde genin had never felt happier.

Before he could revel in this new chapter of his life unfolding, Naruto was aware that he had one loose end named Uchiha Sasuke to deal with.

Forcing all thoughts of the purple-haired jounin out of mind, Naruto focused all his attention on how to beat the youngest Uchiha to a pulp. Naruto had some vague ideas on how to proceed, but he really needed some sound tactical advice. He could not afford to do what he usually did in most battles and bluff and bluster his way to victory. He had promised that if he could not bring Sasuke in alive, he would bring him home dead. Naruto prided himself on always keeping his promises, but preferred not to bring the youngest Uchiha home in pieces.

In the village, there was only one person his age who had defeated an S-rank ninja in a one-on-one battle. Maybe this person would also know how capture an S-rank missing nin alive.

Uzumaki Naruto went off to find Nara Shikamaru.

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Nara Shikamaru was spending the late morning enjoying one of his favorite pastimes, cloud watching. Normally, this behavior would not raise any eyebrows at all if not for the fact that he was taking a break from an intensive morning training session. With sweat dampening his brow, he relaxed and watched the sky while absentmindedly twirling one of Asuma's trench knives around his index finger.

After Asuma's death and his subsequent defeat of the seemingly immortal Hidan, Shikamaru made it a point to get up early every morning and work himself into the ground in order to become stronger. He had promised Kurenai that he would become a cool adult just like how Asuma was and he would be there for her child.

When his mother Yoshino asked about his new routine citing the fact that he hated getting up in the morning, Shikamaru replied, "Getting up early is a pain, but losing a comrade is even more troublesome. I have got to train to make sure I can do all I can."

Since then, Nara Yoshino had shown her support for her son's endeavors by making sure Shikamaru never left the house without an extra large bento in hand. He was her "baby boy" after all.

The chuunin's morning respite ended when he heard the unmistakable voice of Uzumaki Naruto calling out.

"Oy, Shikamaru! I need your help."

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Shikamaru examined the situation in front of him and cursed. Nothing was ever simple when it came to Uzumaki Naruto. The genin just explained his predicament of having to capture or assassinate Sasuke by himself.

The chuunin rubbed his face in frustration and exclaimed, "Damn. Naruto, can't you ever do anything the normal way?"

The blonde cheekily replied, "Normal is for ninjas who aren't going to be Hokage. You can see why I need your advice, though. Hahaha."

Naruto placed his right hand at the back of his neck in a nervous gesture.

"We'll need to start off by understanding what resources that you and Sasuke have at your disposal."

Upon seeing a blank expression on the orange and black-clad teen's face, Shikamaru decided to spell things out for him. "I need to know what you and Sasuke are capable of. If we compare your upcoming mission to a game of chess, I need then to know what pieces are on the board. Leave _nothing_ out."

With that last line, Shikamaru gave Naruto a knowing look as if the chuunin was more aware than he let on.

Naruto tried to find the proper words to tell the Nara genius that he was the jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox. He searched for something more elegant than, "Yeah. So you know about the Kyuubi that destroyed Konoha 15 years ago, he's actually sealed in my belly."

Naruto took a deep and continued.

"I guess I should start at the beginning. On October 10th, 15 years ago I was born during the darkest crisis our village had ever faced…"

Shikamaru interrupted, "If this is about you being the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. The Godaime debriefed me as soon as I joined the Niju Shotai. We're cool."

If Maito Gai had been observing the conversation he would've remarked how Kakashi-like Shikamaru was at the moment, so cool and hip.

Naruto had let out a breath that he never knew that he was holding. It was refreshing to see one of his peers so nonchalant about the Kyuubi. Then it struck him.

"Aargh!!! You son of a bitch! You had me worrying over nothing then."

Shikamaru's smirk told him all he needed to know.

When the Nara prodigy was finally told the truth about the no. 1 prankster in the village. Shikamaru smacked himself on the forehead, wondering why anyone had ever referred to him as a genius in the first place. Now it was all so painfully obvious. Naruto's treatment by the villagers, his birth date, and even those whisker marks made so much sense. Shikamaru found a newfound respect for his friend.

"I just need to know what you are _really_ capable of." replied the dark-haired chuunin.

After explaining the effects of housing the nine-tailed fox had on his body and how he could use up to four tails of the demon's chakra, Naruto simply stated that he wouldn't need it against the Uchiha.

Shikamaru stared at the blonde quizzically, inviting an explanation.

"The most difficult thing regarding this mission is not defeating Sasuke, but keeping him alive. Because of Kakashi-sensei's training regimen, I have done a few decades worth of intensive wind element chakra training. Let me show you what I mean."

Naruto gestured upward to the only sizable cloud in the bright blue sky. He raised his right arm and casually swiped it down. Sure enough, Shikamaru couldn't help but gape seeing that the cloud had been split into two.

Naruto's casual demonstration was a few orders of magnitude away from anything he had witnessed Asuma doing. With a massive store of chakra at his command and the fine control to use it, Shikamaru could definitely envision Naruto being able to attain his dream of becoming Hokage. Whereas Sakura and Tsunade had focused their modest reserves with ironclad control, Naruto was another animal completely.

The blonde genin was the first to speak.

"With my wind-natured chakra at a high enough level, I can't pull my punches. The very thing that gives me an advantage over Sasuke is what makes it such a pain in the ass to capture him alive."

"That's troublesome. There has to be a way for Sasuke to survive your strongest attacks."

"In a toe-to-toe confrontation, the only way for me to overcome the bastard is with lethal force."

Shikamaru then adopted his thinking posture for a few short seconds before speaking.

"Don't give him a fair fight then."

"Huh?"

"You should clarify what your objectives really are for this mission. Do you want to defeat Sasuke in a fair duel or just bring him back to Konoha? They're not the same thing."

"Bring the bastard back to the village, of course." answered Naruto.

"If I were to rank the two of you as chess pieces on your capabilities, the both of you would probably be ranked as the most powerful pieces on the chessboard, the queens."

Before Naruto could interrupt, Shikamaru continued, "And no, I'm not making some cheesy gay joke. The queen has the most potential for movement on the board, but even a lowly pawn can capture a queen under the right circumstances. Take that asshole Hidan, for example."

Shikamaru told Naruto exactly how he had tricked Hidan into destroying one of Kakuzu's hearts by using the insane zealot's rituals against him, and finally how he had blown the fucker to smithereens with explosive tags.

"Naruto, just set your pieces up right and you can succeed."

"Damn. Shikamaru, that was pretty badass."

Shikamaru's account had gotten Naruto's mind racing.

"_Maybe I can figure out a way to use all of Sasuke's strengths against him."_ thought Naruto.

He made a mental checklist of all of his target's strengths. There was the cursed seal with its two levels of power. There was also the chidori to consider as well as Sasuke's speed and frightening new proficiency with a sword. Last and most dangerous to consider was the Sharingan. It was a fearsome and goddamn annoying bloodline to deal with, capable of copying most ninjutsu and taijutsu, and allowing users to predict their opponents' moves. The bastard could react to most attacks before they were completed. Naruto could kill him with wind chakra easily, but that was not what he wanted

Then it struck him.

It was a maddeningly simple idea, and that fact struck him as hilarious.

Shikamaru watched his friend adopt a variation of his own posture reserved for strategic thinking. While he didn't expect his friend to be this silent in thought for this long, he expected Naruto to erupt in gut-busting laughter even less. The genin did so unabashedly as Shikamaru sat by bewildered.

After a good number of seconds, Naruto finally stopped to explain.

"Remember what you said about checking the resources I can use against Sasuke?"

Nara Shikamaru nodded dumbly.

"You just reminded me of one of my oldest talents. The number one prankster in Konohagakure now has an idea that just might work."

The blonde burst out in laughter again.

The chuunin sighed his familiar _"Oh god, I'm dealing with a dumbass" _sigh that he perfected dealing with Ino as a child.

"Please tell me that you aren't going to use the Harem no Jutsu on him. That would just be suicidal."

Naruto shook his head.

" If it works it'll be legendary, and if not Sasuke'll be sashimi." replied the smirking genin.

"So you're going to stake the outcome of a solo s-rank mission on a prank. I can't tell if that's stupidity or bravery."

"Just chalk it up as one of my "resources" and we'll call it even. Thanks though Shikamaru. I have an idea of what do now, so, when I get back, I owe you a bowl of ramen or two at Ichiraku. Now I just have to find where Konohamaru and Gai are."

Naruto waved a goodbye and quickly disappeared out of sight.

Shikamaru could help but chuckle a little to himself.

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Naruto had gathered all the materials he had needed and headed toward the village gates. He had been given an Anbu report detailing Sasuke's last known whereabouts and he planned to intercept him before he headed back to the Otogakure.

He lingered at the enterance, but Anko was nowhere in sight. Naruto moved to pass through the village gates when he heard a familiar voice.

"Naruto, wait!"

Naruto turned around to see his childhood crush and teammate Haruno Sakura with pleading eyes.

"I'm sorry that I have been avoiding you for the past few days, but I wanted to wish you good luck. Good luck."

"Thanks Sakura-chan! I'll see you in a few days with Sasuke at my side, I promise."

The pink-haired kunoichi graced him with a big smile that he mirrored.

Naruto turned around and rushed out the gates.

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A few hundred feet away from the village gates, Naruto could sense a powerful presence rushing towards his location, barreling through the dense forest.

It was Mitarashi Anko with a mysterious expression on her face, her trench coat trailing behind her.

She crashed into Naruto with a fierce kiss that had his pulse racing.

When they finally broke their embrace, she idly noted that they were roughly the same height. That was a good thing as it was difficult to tell someone's height when they were all horizontal.

She was flushed as she spoke.

"That was for good luck." Anko then tossed him a small parcel. "And this is because I don't believe in luck."

He looked down at the package in his hands and looked up to thank her.

She had already disappeared silently into the forest.

Naruto opened the brown paper wrapping to find a sizable stack of explosive notes. These elaborate tags were an extremely powerful type meant for battlefield usage. From what he could remember from Jiraiya's lectures about explosive devices, these kinds of notes fell out of common usage with the end of the last Rock-Leaf war. Meant for obliterating the defenses of most advanced earth jutsu practitioners, Anko's gift would be not a small degree of overkill if wielded against the youngest Uchiha. Naruto smiled. The explosive tags may be too over the top by even the blonde's lenient standards, but the symbolism of the gift was clear to him.

It was time to wage his own little war.

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It was relatively straightforward for Uzumaki Naruto to locate Uchiha Sasuke. The ANBU information he received was for the most part accurate and it was mainly a matter of plotting intercept courses and sending squads of kage bunshins to engage and slow down the missing Uchiha.

If one shadow clone dispelled, Naruto would receive its memories. With his ability to create hundreds of clones without taxing his stamina in the slightest, a relatively short amount of time passed before one group of kage bunshins spotted Sasuke. Before they and the succeeding squads of clones were all obliterated, Orochimaru's protégé found himself facing his old teammate in a rocky and lightly wooded area.

"Hey, bastard!" Naruto's customary greeting rang out.

"Dead Last."

Black eyes met blue and a dispassionate expression once again met a fiercely determined grin.

"You should run back to Konoha, unless you want your dream to die here and now." quipped Sasuke.

"You know I'm much too stubborn to give up like that. Just come back to the village. We can hunt down Itachi together." pleaded the blonde genin.

"There's not one person in that pathetic village who can match him."

"Let me prove you wrong."

"Fine then, idiot. You should know that a fox is nothing but prey in the talons of the hawk."

With that, Sasuke drew the sword he stored at the back of his waistband in an underhanded grip. With expectations of effortless murder running through his head, he started to rush at the genin when, all of a sudden, something went terribly wrong.

The comfortable weight of the sword he spent over two years mastering felt incredibly off. The black-haired teen looked at his right hand and the handle clenched within it. Protruding from the bottom of his fist, the sword's deadly steel measured only half a foot long. The rest had been cleanly shorn off.

Sasuke glanced behind him to see the remaining two feet of blade paces away, sunk into the ground from where it had fallen.

What had happened?

Sasuke could sense no massive surge of chakra or distortions in the air beforehand. The blonde's infuriating grin never wavered throughout. Sasuke struggled to maintain his trademark composure. His sword had just split apart impossibly.

"I didn't say to start yet." said Naruto echoing Kakashi's words during the bell test they both took to prove themselves genin.

The Uchiha activated his Sharingan in frustration, intent on not missing it this time.

"Don't get too concerned. You won't be able to copy it anyway."

Sasuke threw away the useless sword handle to the side and clenched his fists in preparation for an upcoming attack.

The blonde, unexpectedly, removed his hitai-ite to mop sweat from his brow. He shrugged off his small travel pack and casually rummaged through it.

Sasuke felt like sighing for some reason. The Uchiha silently swore to himself that, if the idiot pulled out a cup of ramen, he would use a chidori on him then and there.

Instead, Naruto pulled out a standard issue kunai from his pack.

Attached to it was Sasuke's old forehead protector with the unmistakable slash, from their previous fight at the Valley of the End, marring the symbol of Konoha. Naruto tied his own battered hitai-ite to the kunai's ring.

Fishing through the pack again, Naruto retrieved his old pair of goggles that he had borrowed from Konohamaru and placed them once again on his forehead.

"I just wanted to show you that our fight right now is not about Konoha or Orochimaru's pissant little village. It's about you and me."

Naruto then flung the aerodynamically challenged kunai into a far-off tree and tossed his travel pack away haphazardly.

"How about we start right now?" suggested the whiskered teen.

The teenagers rushed at each other with deadly intent.

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While barreling towards Sasuke, Naruto reflected upon his talk with Shikamaru and with previous talks with Kakashi-sensei about the true capabilities of the Sharingan.

Kakashi once stated that the Sharingan had an amazing capability for copying the gross external movements of both the chakra and the body, but not for fine details. Naruto ultimately understood to this mean that it was ideal for copying ninjutsu dependant on handseals, but not techniques like rasengan. It also meant that the Sharigan could copy or predict taijutsu roughly like with Rock Lee's techniques stolen at the Chuunin exam.

Sasuke could bastardize a taijutsu style, but would need the help of a master like Kakashi-sensei to refine and perfect its finer and subtler movements. What did it matter to the Sharingan if toes pointed one way or if a fist was clenched like this or that? An Uchiha could react to gross movements quick enough make an opponent's short life hell.

Upon talking to Nara Shikamaru about using an enemy's strengths against them, Uzumaki Naruto was reminded of a phrase he had heard a long time ago.

_The devil is in the details_.

If things went according to plan, Sasuke would learn this lesson quite well.

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As Naruto neared closer to his target, he clenched his fists tightly crushing the capsules inside them.

He attacked recklessly just like how Sasuke expected, throwing an all or nothing right haymaker.

Sasuke's counter was textbook material, beautiful and elegant in its execution. He dodged the strike with inhuman speed and was set to attack Naruto's unprotected back.

Then Naruto opened his left hand releasing a sort of reddish powder.

Momentum is a hell of a thing Sasuke found out, as he dodged right into a cloud of red powder.

With his goggles slid over his eyes, Naruto released the contents of his right hand to join the dissipating remnants of the powder he released with his left.

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Earlier back in Konohagakure, Naruto had visited Maito Gai to ask for some seemingly innocuous culinary advice. The Jounin had a village-wide reputation for enjoying spicy foods, especially curry rice, the spicier the better. The blonde showed an admirable, youthful enthusiasm for the hottest of spices. Never being one to curb any kind of enthusiasm, Maito Gai lent some of the hottest spices ever encountered by ninjas of the village to Uzumaki Naruto in liberal amounts. The happy blonde literally squealed with delight looking forward to his upcoming culinary adventures and the jounin had never felt prouder.

It was those very same spices along with delicious ingredients such as metal shavings and ground glass that Naruto placed in his capsules.

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The delicious mixture of spices, metal shavings, and ground glass was currently making the youngest Uchiha scream bloody murder all the while rolling on the ground and clawing at his eyes.

Uzumaki Naruto could barely contain his laughter as Sasuke yelled things like, "My eyes!! You fucking bastard!! I'm going to kill you!"

So he didn't.

He laughed heartily at the arrogant missing-nin's expense.

Hearing the dead last's laughter served as the last straw as Sasuke drew every ounce of power to transform into the demonic form provided by the second level of his cursed seal.

As Naruto watched the beastly transformation with waves of foul chakra rolling off his former teammate, he could only think "Checkmate."

Wings shaped like hands erupted from Sasuke's back as the transition from man to artificially created demon completed. The enraged Uchiha wasted no time in focusing his chakra for his perversion of Hatake Kakashi's Raikiri technique.

Uzumaki Naruto struck mercilessly without word or warning before Sasuke could complete the handseals necessary. He struck not with a punch or kick but with a wind based rasengan.

The Fuuton: Shipuu Rasengan or Wind Release Hurricane Spiral Ball was a pinnacle of Naruto's training and made the 4th Hokage's original technique look like a cakewalk by comparison.

While the execution of the technique was complex, its effects were quite simple. The Hurricane Rasengan simply obliterated things. Depending on how Naruto regulated the wind chakra in the form of a rasengan, he could toss his opponents in a blender or cause them complete cellular destruction on all levels.

For Sasuke, it was a blender from hell.

Naruto's technique struck him first in the back, turning his wings into shredded meat before attacking the rest of his body. The energy of the technique kept him aloft, punishing him with cutting winds, long after he had passed out and reverted to his normal form.

When Sasuke's mauled form finally landed in the ruined landscape, Uzumaki Naruto breathed a sigh of relief to see he was still breathing.

Only two things saved Uchiha Sasuke's life: the strength of his cursed seal level two form and the fact that Naruto toned down his wind-natured rasengan slightly.

He still looked like he lost a fight with a barrel full of kunai, though. And lost badly.

"_Heh. Maybe I should have used those explosive tags Anko-chan got me after all." _thought Naruto looking at Sasuke's injuries.

"_Oh well."_

Naruto then slung the unconscious and bleeding Uchiha over his shoulder. Turning to Sasuke, the cheery genin spoke.

"Let's head out, Bastard. We've got people back home waiting for us."

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Passing through the main gate of Konohagakure, Naruto was elated that one of the goals that he worked on for years was finally accomplished. Sasuke was back in the custody of his home village.

Now Uzumaki Naruto could finally start to move on with his life.

What was next?

Oh yeah,

There was still Orochimaru, Akatsuki, and becoming Hokage.

Not to mention Anko and what the future held for them.

As the infamous blonde drew incredulous stares from all around with the last Uchiha in tow, he searched for a specific pair of beautiful violet eyes in the rapidly growing crowd.

Naruto found them and shared in her laughter.

He had quite a story to tell her.

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The End of Things, Right?

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Author's Note:

Yeah I know that wind based chakra is supposed to be close range, but if I want it to behave like the Nanto Seiken or Yamasenken, I'll let it. I'm extrapolating on aspects of wind chakra such as cutting and splitting.

Also, if the Naruto in this story seems too kickass with the wind chakra mastery and all, you'd be pretty damn good as well if you had decades of intensive training with _one_ thing. He's not perfect but he's shaping up to be _The Hurricane of Konoha_.

Thanks for reading.

C&C are welcome.


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